Efficient and effective customer service is an essential requirement for commercial enterprises to compete successfully in today's business world. In the telecommunications industry, for example, providing customer service is an important part of sustaining market share in view of the many competitors in the industry. Customers whose telephone service, for example, is interrupted or disconnected for even a relatively short period of time may desire to seek an alternative source for service, especially if the interruption or disconnection is not addressed by a quick and effective customer service response. Communicating with one or more technicians providing service in a telecommunications network is an important component of ensuring the proper function of the network and promoting a high level of customer service.
Service technicians in a telecommunications system typically perform field service operations at a variety of remote locations. These technicians often need to receive instructions and other advisory information at these remote locations from one or more sources supervising the work of the technicians. When accessing functionality such as an access device, for example, to service telecommunications equipment at a customer location, a technician may not be provided with information that would be beneficial for providing service at that location. Since technicians perform service at remote locations, the technicians usually do not have a common method or system for receiving instructions or other advisory information from a supervisory source.
What are needed, therefore, are more effective methods and systems for communicating instructions and/or advisory information to technicians at remote customer service locations. More efficient methods and systems of common communication are also needed to provide information to technicians based on the type and location of the technicians and/or the service performed by the technicians.